Here’s a note from a missionary I know. It’s a few days old, but for those of us who know nothing about life in parts of Africa, it’s revealing.

On Saturday, a contact told my friend “that the Lord’s Resistance Army (a rebel group from Uganda that has been terrorizing northern Congo and the Central African Republic (CAR) throughout the past year) are advancing on Assa, a mission station near the CAR border, and moving toward Zemio. There is a large church, a Bible School, a small hospital, and a town that used to have around 8,000 people. People are beginning to flee in panic.

“A general field conference was to begin Monday at Zemio. People usually come in the thousands to attend these conferences. They are trying to get word out to the distant outlying areas to warn them not to come. Please pray for God’s protection for a virtually defenseless people. The LRA are heavily armed and known for their atrocities and brutality. They burn houses, steal the few possessions and food owned by a poverty-stricken people, rape, kill, and capture children and young people for their army.”

If you’ve been watching 24, I believe this year’s storyline uses an African warlord who kidnaps young boys for his army, like this one from Uganda. May the Lord pour out his rage against the LAR and save many of those abused kids and the innocent people they are attacking.